Family Owned Businesses

We provide merger and acquisition advisory, strategic consulting and debt and equity financing services to large and medium-sized family owned businesses. We assist numerous family owned entities in obtaining working capital and term loan financing and in the private placement of equity to capitalize on growth opportunities.

Our professionals have extensive experience in financial accounting, federal tax and estate and gift tax matters. This experience allows us to not only optimize the proceeds to the shareholders, but also to minimize the liability, thereby optimizing the net after-tax proceeds.

One example of our experience in this area is our recent work with Boscov’s, the largest family owned and operated department store chain in the United States. We assisted the Boscov and Lakin families in completing an intra-family transfer of ownership and in implementing a business plan that resulted in sales growth of over 20% in the 12 months following a strategic alternatives study and a $425 million leveraged capitalization.

The process included several stages and multiple transactions in order to accomplish the families’ objectives:

• $370 million senior revolver to refinance Boscov’s existing facility and provide a portion of the funding for a recapitalization
• $55 million Junior Secured Term Loan B to provide a portion of the funding for the recapitalization
• Sale of $170 million credit card business to HSBC and related ongoing partnership that provided a portion of the funding for a recapitalization and enhanced earnings going forward
• $160 million third-party acquisition of 10 Federated/May store locations with simultaneous leases to Boscov’s
• $54 million refinancing on improved terms of seven store locations
• $23 million sale/leaseback of its Monmouth, NJ, store

Other family owned business transactions recently completed by our team include:

• Sale of Clipper Magazine, a direct-mail advertising company to Gannett
• Sale of Hauer Custom Manufacturing Inc., manufacturer of shoe and lavatory care products and fabric dye products to Cosmetic Essence, Inc.
• Provided for working capital and term loan financing to Modern Mushroom Farms, Inc., the second largest distributor of fresh mushrooms in the United States
• Private placement of equity by Chartwell Investments, Inc. to RCR (Richard Childress Racing) Enterprises, which owns and operates teams competing in NASCAR’s NEXTEL Cup series, Busch series and Truck series.

View Family Owned Business Transactions